This invention relates to control of backups of information resources stored in a computer system.
In recent years, the improved performance and lower costs of computer systems have expanded use of computer systems in a variety of industries and applications. This has been accompanied by conversion into electronic form of information resources which had conventionally been handled using paper, so that information has come to be stored electronically in computer systems. Further, with rapid advances in the utilization of computer systems, the volume of information resources stored in computer systems has been increasing. As a result, backup technology to protect valuable information resources from disasters, errors in operations and similar has become increasingly important.
In the prior art, when backing up information resources, technology to efficiently execute backups in order to reduce the impact on actual operation has been regarded as important. For example, NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol) has been stipulated as a protocol to execute backup processing between backup servers which control backup processing and data servers which manage the data of the backup target, and has been disclosed (NDMP Protocol version 3
(ftp://ftp.ndmp.org/pub/version.3/doc/ndmp_draft_v3_0.pdf).
Faster speeds and lower costs of network systems, constructed by connecting a plurality of computer systems in a network, have lead to construction and utilization of numerous such the network systems. In such an environment, the importance of backup of information resources is same. In particular, the ability to efficiently backup information resources stored in a plurality of computer systems in a batch is important in order to reduce the impact on actual operation. For example, backup technology has been disclosed, for an environment in which a plurality of computer systems are integrated in a single name space, transparently enabling accessing of information resources without making the user conscious of differences between computer systems, which efficiently backs up information resources stored in computer systems comprised by the name space (U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,414).